The invention relates to structural members or components, an arrangement of such components, and clips for holding the components together. The components, which can be made of wood, wood products or wood-based products, are in the form of panels or planks that can be coated on the top surface and/or underside with plastic laminates, etc. The components have use as panels, sheets, floor panels, wooden siding and cladding, etc.
Wood-product arrangements and components thereof are known from German Utility Model DE 297 10 175 U1.
The present invention provides for the simple manufacture of such components and clips as well as to allow that with the clips, the components can be laid and joined together easily, quickly and with precision. The invention facilitates the glueless, quick and durable laying of a floor and its easy and non-destructive dismantling.
In accordance with the invention, a clip for holding together components in the form of panels or planks that have longitudinal recesses spaced inwardly form longitudinal edges thereof, includes a detent having a free end section that may include a locking element. The free end section extends, in an unstressed position, upward from a clip base, in a direction obliquely to the plane defined by the edges of the components, and can be elastically deflected downward. The characteristics of the invention, the simple design of the clip and the easy manufacture of the components ensure that the clip can be applied quickly, that be joined together simply and with precision, and that the union is good and firm. If the components according to the invention are laid and glued as well, no clamping means are necessary, since the clips hold the components under tension until the glue or other adhesive is cured.
An advantageous connection between the clip and a component to which an adjacent component is to be joined, is produced when the clip base carries between an upward extending flange element and the detent, another flange element extending upward, which can be applied against the edge of the component accommodating the upward extending flange element. If need be, the two flange elements can be inclined toward each other and with a component face surface enclose the same angle between 60xc2x0 and 80xc2x0. The edge area of the component edge against which the flange element can be applied, can be inclined toward the surface of the component at the same angle as the flange element.
A precise and firm joinder is accomplished when the detent is tilted into the plane of the clip base body, and the locking element of the detent, with a face surface of the component, enclose an angle which corresponds to the angle enclosed by the edge-proximate inside surface with the surface of the component; or when the edge-proximate inside surface of one of transverse recesses in the component is applied against the detent or its locking element, and the locking element of this detent is inclined in the direction opposite to that of the face surface of the components, that they each enclose different angles, whereby the outside end edge of the inside surface of the recess is closer to the transverse edge of the corresponding component than the inside end edge.
A simple, strong clip, which holds the components well in their position, results when the detent, the flange element and the additional flange element are punched out of the clip base which is made of spring-elastic metal.
Advantageous features for laying the components with precision and for ensuring a firm fit of the clips are the edges of the components, which may have a plane underside for lying on a plane underlay, adjoining each other at surface level but having a space between each other at a bottom level; and/or from at least one of the edges of a component, two legs extend, forming a groove between them, and that into this groove a tongue coming from one of the edges of the other component is inserted, whereby, if need be, the leg at an underside level is shorter than the leg at a top surface level.
The invention also relates to a clip for components or for an arrangement of the kind mentioned above, which is easy to manufacture and can join the components firmly together. The clip can be provided with at least two upward projecting retaining elements, one of which is a flange element bent upward from the clip base body. The other retaining element can be formed by an elastically or resiliently displaceable detent extending upward, whereby the detent, which may have on a free end section an upward extending locking element, may in unstressed position extend from the clip base body diagonally upward in the direction of the retaining element. The clip body, between the upward-extending flange element and the detent, can have an additional flange element that is also extending upward.
Advantageous embodiments of the invention are explained in the following description, in the claims and in the drawings.